


Quiet Moments

by Leonawriter



Series: FF7 minifics [6]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Everyone Has Issues, Gen, Post-Dirge of Cerberus, Seventh Heaven - Freeform, Team as Family, in which a bar is home to many people
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-13
Updated: 2018-03-13
Packaged: 2019-03-30 22:55:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13961829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leonawriter/pseuds/Leonawriter
Summary: During a bit of downtime, Tifa thinks about how the times when you have too much time to think are the ones you have to watch out for.Having other people around helps, though.





	Quiet Moments

**Author's Note:**

> No specific timeline to SM-verse as of yet, but it probably happened at some point.

It’s the quiet moments that are the most dangerous, Tifa thinks to herself. 

When there are things to do, places to go, people to talk to and things to keep your mind busy, you don’t tend to think about things too hard. 

You have to worry about keeping the bar stocked, making sure everyone’s glass is full, or not full, or that the customers aren’t riling each other up. You have to know where you’re going, to know if the route’s changed since you walked it last, because Edge is constantly moving and being renovated. You’ve got to think about _other peoples’_ problems, and when you’re thinking about other people, you can’t think about yourself.

She knows it’s the same for Cloud, and for Barret, and as much as it had been hard to accept the black-winged redhead at first, she’s been seeing signs in him, too.

Cloud still has his deliveries, but now that the threat of Geostigma is gone, he hangs around people more, and although Barret is taking more trips away from Corel these days to see Marlene, he’s still working on improving things back there. One of these days she thinks they’re going to move back for good, which... although she knows it’ll be good for both of them, she knows it’ll also make her sad, too, in a selfish way. Genesis... it’s hard not to notice how loud and dramatic he is, but even though he makes her reach for her gloves sometimes, he’s also the one she worries about the most, now, because while everyone else has already found their path, no matter what he might say about it, he’s still fumbling around for whatever he’s supposed to do in a future he wasn’t prepared for, that doesn’t _need_  him.

It’s a quiet moment now, she knows, but so far it isn’t a bad one. She’s just waiting for the tension to ease in.

It’s something she needs to work free of. A bad habit. She’s so used to things going sour whenever she tried to make things work before - with Cloud, Marlene, and then Denzel - that she expects things to start going in the same bad way again.

The kids are working on their lessons at one of the bar’s tables. Barret’s watching Marlene with that soft expression he gets whenever he sees her being happy. Cloud... _looks_  like he’s not paying attention, sat at a table a short way away and keeping customers wary and possibly also away with how he’s cleaning First Tsurugi, in all its parts and pieces, but every so often whenever Denzel gets frustrated and starts muttering about some problem or other, Cloud speaks up with a suggestion. Sometimes, Denzel’s eyes will widen, he’ll smile, and nod, and that will be it; other times, Genesis - otherwise assumed to be reading - will snort and correct Cloud, who’ll just shrug, unless it’s something he thinks he knows better.

Tifa takes an empty glass from the table, and refills it. They’re all having Banora White juice this time, because despite how it used to be hard to get, it’s getting easier again now there are people moving back into that region, tending the trees again. Tifa has to wonder if there’s some sort of date they’re all missing, but if there is, Genesis isn’t telling.

Marlene liked it, at least, and she had done when they’d found it well before now, too. It’d simply been too difficult to get a hold of to ensure a steady supply before.

 _It’s good_ , Cloud had said at his first sip, and Tifa’s breath catches when notices a new melancholy, a bittersweet smile on Genesis’ face when he takes his next, which melts into his usual charming smile the moment he sees her looking.

She rolls her eyes, shakes her head, and sighs. 

It wasn’t too bad, this. Every so often someone would say something, and someone else would freeze up for a moment, because everyone had their own things that affected them like reaching out to touch the soft fuzz of a plant only to find it was a new kind of Cactaur in disguise, and you’ve now got to take out all the needles. But they had each other.

Tifa nods, and smiles. Cloud looks up, and catches her eye, and he nods over to her, a small smile on his face too. 

Things always work best when you’ve got other people to drag you back to reality, she realised. Quiet moments were only _really_  dangerous when you were alone, and you had too much time on your hands.


End file.
